Editorial
Discontinuing anticytomegalovirus therapy in patients with cytomegalovirus retinitis and AIDS
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis is the most common opportunistic ocular infection in patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).1 Before the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), CMV retinitis affected 30% of patients with AIDS at some time during the course of their disease.2 Cytomegalovirus retinitis is a late stage complication associated with low CD4+ T cell counts, typically less than 50 cells × 106/l.3 4 Cytomegalovirus retinitis was rare at CD4+ T cells >100 cells × 106/l.3 4 All of the available anti-CMV therapies suppress viral replication, but do not eliminate the virus. Unless immune reconstitution occurs, prolonged suppressive anti-CMV therapy (maintenance therapy) is required.1 5 Without immune reconstitution or maintenance therapy, CMV retinitis relapses within 3 weeks. As such, in the pre-HAART era, patients with CMV retinitis required lifetime maintenance anti-CMV therapy.
HAART consists of combination therapy for the human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV), with at least three drugs, typically two nucleoside
reverse transcriptase inhibitors
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Br. J. Ophthalmol. 2001 85: 471-473.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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